Getting the flavor of...

A Georgia isle where time stands still

Sapelo Island “probably hasn’t changed much in a thousand years,” said Mary Ann Anderson in The Washington Post. One in the string of barrier islands that protect Georgia’s coast, it has been home to a small Gullah community since the current residents’ ancestors arrived as slaves, but most of the rest is “nature at its rawest and most splendid.” A 30-minute ferry ride will get you there, and you can stay in a state campground or at a 1912 mansion once occupied by tobacco heir R.J. Reynolds Jr., who owned most of the island for years. The Gullah language—a blend of English with various West African -languages—is still spoken by the 60 to 70 residents of Hog Hammock, where the general store is run by a ninth-generation descendent of the island’s first slaves. Our tour group also stopped at a 6-foot-tall circle of oyster shells created by Native Americans centuries ago. Nearby, pelicans were diving into the waves

Adult summer camp

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These days, it’s never too late to go back to summer camp, said Jessica P. Ogilvie in the Los Angeles Times. There are currently about 400 adult camps throughout the country, and if Malibu, Calif.’s entry is any indication, they’re pure throwbacks to innocent days of youth. Jennifer Rheuban founded Adult Color Wars two years ago after concluding that going to bars or dinners wasn’t as fun as, say, playing tug-of-war. “I thought, ‘Okay, I want to go back to camp,’” she says. Twice a year, including this Oct. 5–6, about 50 adult campers join Rheuban at Camp JCA Shalom, divide into four teams, and spend the weekend competing in relay races, playing flip cup, even tossing water balloons. She charges each camper $195 for the weekend and donates the bulk of the profits to a camp scholarship fund. Still, it’s not the charity angle that seems to bring in the crowds. It’s the chance to be a kid again.